Definition

1. Noun (plural):
   • Cheap, ready-made clothing: Refers to inexpensive, mass-produced garments, historically including clothing supplied to sailors.
   • Waste liquid or semi-liquid food: Refers to wet, often unappetizing food waste, particularly when used as feed for animals like pigs.
   • Spilled or waste liquid: Can refer to liquid that has been spilled or slopped over.

Usage and Examples

• Noun (Cheap Clothing):

  • The sailors were issued standard slops upon joining the ship.
  • In the 18th century, slops were commonly sold in ports for seamen.

• Noun (Wet Animal Feed):

  • The farmer collected kitchen scraps to mix into slops for the pigs.
  • Feeding slops to livestock was a common way to recycle food waste.

• Noun (Spilled Liquid):

  • He clumsily carried the bucket, leaving a trail of slops on the floor.
  • Clean up those slops before someone slips.

Advanced Usage

• "the slops": Can refer collectively to waste food or liquid.
  • After the party, the slops from the kitchen were quite a mess to deal with.

Variants and Related Words

• Slop (verb): To spill or flow over the edge of a container; to apply something carelessly.
  • Try not to slop the paint over the sides of the can.
• Slop (noun, uncountable): Can refer to soft, wet, often unappetizing matter (e.g., mud, poor-quality food).
  • The food in the cafeteria was just tasteless slop.
• Slop bucket (noun): A pail for collecting waste food or liquid.
• Slop basin (noun): A bowl for collecting waste tea leaves or dregs at a dining table.

Synonyms

• Swill: Waste food mixed with liquid for feeding animals.
• Scraps: Leftover bits of food.
• Refuse: Waste matter.
• Garbage: Waste, especially domestic refuse.
• Hand-me-downs: Used clothing, implying cheapness (for the clothing sense).

Related Phrasal Verbs/Phrases

• Slop out (phrasal verb, chiefly British): To empty slop buckets, especially in a prison.
  • The prisoners had to slop out every morning.
• Slop over (phrasal verb): To spill over the edge.
  • The soup slopped over the rim of the bowl.

Idioms

• No idioms are commonly and directly formed with the plural noun "slops." The related verb "slop" is used in phrases like "slop around," meaning to move in a lazy, casual, or clumsy manner.
  • He spent the weekend just slopping around the house.

Noun

1. cheap clothing (as formerly issued to sailors in Britain)
2. wet feed (especially for pigs) consisting of mostly kitchen waste mixed with water or skimmed or sour milk